Now the countdown really begins. A wild and wooly presidential and congressional election is less than a year away. On Nov. 3, 2020, we will be stepping into election booths to mark ballots. My hope is that fireworks-filled national politics don’t create a firewall between Platte Countians and the elections where their votes weigh heaviest, the elections for who takes the gavels and seats in city halls and the county courthouse.

Municipal and school board elections will be April 7, 2020. Primary elections for county, state and national elections will be Aug. 4, 2020. Then comes the big one just a little less than a year from now. They all matter.

I suspect that I could stop 20 strangers on the street in Platte City and ask them to name the three county commissioners, and very few taxpayers would be able to name one if any. The percentage of Parkville residents who can recite the names of the aldermen representing their ward is likely quite low. If your coffee-sharing neighbor is not on the school board, you probably can’t name anyone on the school board.

But these are people who do make a difference in our lives. They influence the quality of schools, whether or not we have vibrant public parks and streetscapes, and the quality of growth in cities and the unincorporated portion of the county. In the year ahead, take time out from the national news to follow what your local leaders are doing, as well as what they are saying. Democracy is a grassroots thing, and the grass needs some close attention at all levels in the year ahead.

I’ll admit it’s not that easy to keep track of local politics. We’ve all got a lot to do just to make a living. If the potholes are patched, the water is running and police or sheriff’s cars are on the road, we’re generally good. Our attention is easily turned by international intrigue, and that is worthy of watching, but so are local leaders.

It doesn’t help that these are not the best of times for local media. Television is hamstrung by having to cover news in a metro area that is geographically huge, with a state line down the middle, and five major metro counties and a half dozen counties on the fringe, and the occasional major out of state news story. It’s a rare day when TV cameras arrive at a suburban city hall. The once mighty Kansas City Star newspaper hangs in but has been whittled down by the winds of change.

The average person punts local news unless something unpleasant has arrived in their neighborhood.

You are better. Since you are reading a local newspaper, you are way ahead of those who don’t. Since you are here, please don’t pass by the updates printed on these pages about your school district board, city hall and county governance.

I suspect sports pulls many readers to this newspaper. The Platte County Citizen staff and freelancers do a remarkable job of covering high school sports and school news. They get you results and photographs for multiple athletic events, both young men and young women, from four different school districts. That’s not easy.

But I also admire how the full-time Citizen staff reports county and city news, including Kansas City issues affecting Platte County. That’s a challenge for a small newspaper covering multiple jurisdictions. The Citizen’s reporters do it every week.

They do this with the roar of national and international news pouring into the public from the internet, radio and cable television. Society, once thirsty for information, is now inundated. A side effect is that the honorable service delivered by many citizens elected to local public office gets obscured by national controversies. And, poor decision making by local office holders gets obscured, too.

Don’t wait until next October to begin following the politics in your community. The pot is boiling here, too. Pay attention from now until the next elections, and you will feel confident you’ve done your best to make good choices for local democracy before you drop the ballot in the box.